End Online: Volume 2 (15 page)

Recruiting Fen, she may not be able to do any
cooking but I have her clear a large area of snow for us to cook and sleep on.
Meanwhile, the other two party members leave to collect firewood.

The sky is nearly pitch black by the
time everyone is done with their tasks. A camp fire is fortunately burning
thanks to Prince Charming having a flint and steel, at first we all
turned to panic when we realized we couldn't ignite the flame.

A large iron cauldron full of snow is
situated on a tripod above the fire. As soon as the snow melts and water boils,
it will be time to cook the meat.

Unfortunately, meat is all I have, but if the
prince shares around a small amount of bread as well it could be a nice meal.

There is only one difficulty I have, and that
is that inside this game there are none of the herbs and flavourings of real
life. The only flavourings in End Online you can use are the herbs
connected to herbalism, which all have foreign tastes. The only thing left
to do is use your better judgement and experiment.

At least, this is what I have learnt from the
internet informing me that “there ain’t no salt n' pepper” in this game,
and the old lady at the apothecary telling me I can use herbs in cooking.

Bringing out my mortar and pestle, first off is
to put something in the water to replace the salt I would normally put in.
Going through my inventory though, I have an extremely limited number of
available herbs. Making a decision, I take out five green medicinal herbs, grind
them to dust and pour the contents in the large cauldron.

After mixing it through, I drop all the meat in
and let it cook in the boiling water.

Thinking that the meat may become a little
bland without anything extra, an idea comes to mind. Both the 'Fire
Flower' and 'Winter Berry' have quite nice flavours, it is just the effects
that taste bad. Grinding them up with a ratio of one flower to one berry, I
create a paste where the hot and cold effects should cancel each other out,
leaving the flavour behind. 

Using some spare firewood, I create a small
fire next to the main one. On top of if the new mini blaze, I place a
small pot with the new herb paste and a portion of the fat I previously removed
from the meat.

Stirring it all together I slowly cook it until
it becomes something similar to a thick red sauce. 

I am a little sceptical thanks to the colour,
but a quick taste test reveals it to be rather nice, albeit a little spicy. As
soon as I taste it, a message appears in front of me.

'That's incredible! Who knew cooking
could have such an effect!'

Flabbergasted at the window before me, I
realize I have a full recipe that nobody else knew about, and the effects are
impressive as well. 

Tasting the meats and water also provided three
new recipes, 'Rejuvenating Water', 'Boiled Snow Rabbit Meat(Rejuvenating)'
and 'Boiled Thèr Venison(Rejuvenating)'. I can check them all from my
recipe menu, where I have a tab for potion recipes and one for cooking recipes.
The items I currently have in my inventory also glow green on the recipes,
allowing me to visibly see what I can and cannot create.

The lists are a little short, but surely they
will grow over time.

With my cooking done, I serve up a four plates
of meat, leaving Prince Charming to hand out bread. Of course, I didn't forget
to pour my new sauce over everyone's meat. 

The thick slabs of juicy venison give everyone
a sense of bliss, simply melting in the mouth. With the mouth-watering aroma it
gives off, I am actually a little concerned it may attract some hostile beasts.

"This is delicious!"
Verde exclaims, stuffing the food in her mouth, "Lost, what is your
cooking skill level at? It must be quite high to have food tasting this
good!"

Apparently the higher the cooking level,
the better the food tastes, to the point where even a simple steak can become
gourmet. But this food appears to me to be the result of two things.

Firstly, the fact that it is a part of a
legendary skill. And secondly, combining skills, that being herbalism and
cooking in this instance.

"It's not very high," I reply
modestly, "I just have knowledge on how to cook is all."

"That's still amazing. I wish I could cook
like this." 

She has her hood down while eating the food so
I can see her eyes sparkling across from the camp fire.

 "My lady, I will cook for you
whenever you like!" Prince Charming starts his usual show off to Verde.

"But Sir Laurence, I didn't think you had
the cooking skill."

"Well... No, not in the game. But, I’m
sure I can still cook." 

This guy, is he asking to cook for her in real
life? She is definitely a beauty, more so than many of the famous models I have
seen, but he really is set on her, isn't he.

"...Lost... More..."

Fen turns my attention away from the other two
and onto the empty plate she is holding. Fortunately, I had foreseen her having
an appetite completely different than some ordinary girl her size. This is the
exact reason why I used such a large cauldron. 

There is no more sauce left yet she happily
finishes everything I cooked.

After cleaning up, Verde and Prince
Charming pull out a sleeping bag each, the prince also removing an
extra one for me on Verde’s request. Unfortunately, there are only three
sleeping bags between us, but Fen deciding to stand guard for the night
solves that problem.

Falling asleep in game is incredibly easy, you
only need to follow a few simple steps. Get into a bed or sleeping bag at
night. Close your eyes. Wish for sleep.

Oblivion.

***************************************************

When I open my eyes, I feel a pressure against
my chest emanating a considerable amount of warmth. Looking down I see a lump
of messy white hair sprawled all around inside the sleeping bag. 

The figure is making very slight breathing
noises and upon brushing some of the hair aside, revealed Fen. The wolf girl
has crawled into my sleeping bag sometime last night and is currently curled
up, attached to my chest with one leg casually stretched out over me.

My chest thumps harder with the awareness
of how close this girl is to me. She may be some kind of AI designed for this
game, but right now in front of me is an adorable girl hiding in the sleeping
bag, holding onto me.

Sweat trickling down my face, I consider waking
her up. She seems so peaceful and content that my heart wavers, letting her
remain sleeping.

A strange sound comes from below that causes me
to open my eyes again. It almost sounds like someone chewing. 

Below my head Fen has pulled herself slightly
closer to me and is chewing on my cloak. Gradually taking larger bites, she
eventually places one that bit into my chest itself.

"Ouch!" 

Before she goes to land her second bite I
awkwardly swing my only free hand to karate chop the top of her head with
a considerate force. 

"What do you think you're doing!? Glutton
Wolf!"

The girl does not wake up, despite the edge of
my hand coming down on top of her head. Her face emits a sly grin as she
squeezes her body completely against mine.

Inwardly letting out a sigh, I climb out of the
sleeping bag.

Fen wakes without my presence next to her,
shortly following behind me with some lazy stretches. Verde and Prince charming
appear to be waking up slowly too.

"Now that I think about it. Weren't you
supposed to be keeping watch last night? Fen?" I raise an eyebrow at the
girl.

"I... got lonely..." She puts on a
sorry face, but I highly doubt she is.

I decide not to interrogate her about it. Fen
simply does what she wants, when she wants. It is considerably irritating at
times, but she is always there when I need help.

Altering our direction slightly west, we
travelled for a full week, equivalently three weeks in game.
During that time, everything around us began to change. 

At first we travelled through various snow
ridden areas of forests, hills, and even some frozen plains where the wind
could freeze most players. Yet slowly the snow gradually gave way to the
dirt and grass beneath it. 

Sometimes the others would log off. That idiot
prince, as it turned out, was a university student and had classes from time to
time. During the times when it was just me and Fen, we spend our time exploring
the local areas.

Often we came across small towns where I have
Fen sell any extra loot I had picked up. To my dismay, it turned out I still
gain infamy points if I am in the same room. 

The further we travel, the more the snow starts
fading away. As our surrounding slowly start to blossom into spring
colours, the amount of players we encounter also increases. 

A group of two players trying to kill us had to
be the most memorable moment for me. They had originally come over, mocking us
after seeing the symbols on our hands, indicating we were from the Kingdom
of Glace. 

Shortly afterwards they offered for the girls
to join them and they would spare them, but not us two guys. Prince
Charming, in the finest moments of his brilliance, decided to step forward and
protect, "The beautiful ladies."

As it turns out, those two players had only
just reached level fifty without paying any attention to their stats. Sir
Laurence was a level not much higher than them, but he had improved a lot
since I saw him fight. 

His sword all of a sudden seemed to flow like
water, cutting down his opponents easily. This is the reason in the game why
people who simply try to get levels as fast as possible usually don't have the
strength to match them. It is also the easiest way for a player, such as this
prince, to get the large red skull of a player killer on his back.

During our travels, I only manage to gain four
levels, but I do level up some of my skills a fair bit.

Although, I was disappointed how ‘Potion Creation’
was not showing much progress. Despite its current level, it could not compare
with the herbalism from my class skill, with raw herbs nearly as potent as
potions themselves.

From time to time, I also check the auction on
the two pieces of equipment I had put up.

Each time I do so however, I feel a sigh
overcoming me. It had been a full week in real life and their value had only
gone up to a hundred dollars each.

They should be more popular than this,
considering that their requirements met what the current average player’s level
was. All items that are for the average level of players are generally the most
sought after items. But mine didn’t seem to be getting much attention for some
reason.

***************************************************

Walking up a lush green hill we enter the town
of Leaz. Taking a deep breath at the sight before us, smoke is rising from
houses that are half burnt to the ground. There are even a few that are
little more than scorched remains.

"I don't understand, what could have
happened here!?" Verde's face looks mortified, disbelieving what has
happened.

"Is it that bad?" I ask her, confused
as to why she is so shocked.

"It is! This is a major town, over ten
thousand people live here and it has its own garrison. How could it have
possibly been destroyed like this!?"

I see, she is shocked at whom or what could do
this. Even I can understand that this level of damage to a large town would
have been done by quite the formidable force.

"Well, let's go have a look around. Surely
there are some residents left."